Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism 224 December 2011/January 2012
The Occupy movement is steadily being clubbed off the streets of the United States. After two months which have shaken up political dialogue in the US, the ruling class is working its way around the country banning and physically removing Occupy encampments. This development is the greatest challenge the movement has faced, and its response will determine US politics in the years ahead. Steve Palmer, US correspondent, reports.
In New York, Atlanta, Oakland, Detroit, Portland and other cities, police have been attacking Occupy demonstrators and destroying their encampments. In Tampa, Florida, the police rolled out a tank as part of the preparations for an Occupy rally. The excuse has been the need to enforce ‘health and safety’. Yet these same cities sit idly by as they allow the poorest to fester in slums and go without decent healthcare. Instead of fixing their citizens’ problems, they batter off the streets those who protest about them. Behind the crackdown is the hand of the 1%, the ruling class, determined to remove opposition to their unfettered rule.
The Occupy movement is not only under threat from police batons and tear gas: false friends are circling round it, hoping to channel its energy into support for Obama in the 2012 presidential election and to use it to support the Democratic Party. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has posted a petition ‘100,000 Strong Standing with Occupy Wall Street’ on its website, blaming Republicans, not capitalism, for US economic problems. The Service Employees International Union, which has contributed money to Occupy Wall Street, plans to bus Occupy demonstrators from cities all over the country to Washington, DC to lobby in support of Obama’s ‘jobs creation’ proposal. The hypocrisy of these moves is incredible: across the country it is Democratic Party mayors who have been ordering their police departments to attack Occupy protesters.
While the Democrats are toying with Occupy, the dirty tricks department is positioning itself to try to discredit the Occupy movement. Well-known Washington lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford has approached the American Bankers’ Association with a proposal to prepare a campaign against Occupy Wall Street because of the ‘potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season’, according to a leaked memo. The firm advocates investigating Occupy Wall Street leaders’ backgrounds, litigation history, bankruptcies, and, sinisterly, ‘other associations’. The aim is ‘to construct fact-based negative narratives’ – in plain English, smears – ‘of the OWS for high impact media placement to expose the backers behind this movement’. We now know about this project; but it is likely that other, similar activities are already under way, guided by other organisations.
The police have scored some own goals: pepper-spraying an 84-year-old woman in Seattle; slamming a retired New York Supreme Court judge up against a wall with a riot baton; pepper-spraying peaceful passive students at University of California Davis campus. So much for police being part of the 99%: they are unequivocally on the side of the 1%. But broader strategic questions are raised. How is Occupy going to respond to these varied threats? Is this going to be a movement focused on preserving encampments? How is it going to mobilise broad support? What will it do in an election year? Will it challenge imperialism? What about immigrant rights and racism? What about the wars? What about the prison struggle? What is it going to do about police brutality? In certain cities, links are being built with the working class through local labour organisations. Some Occupy groups have involved themselves in the struggle against foreclosures (repossessions). The Occupy movement has gained support on campuses. But will the movement build links with the most oppressed or will it revert to being a radical anti-consumerist organisation? Occupy has to evolve toward the most oppressed and face off against imperialism if it is to grow, gain strength and achieve real change.
